


A bit about rage

by Adarog (RembrandtsWife)



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Awkward Conversations, Gen, Not Shippy, Rage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-14
Updated: 2012-05-14
Packaged: 2017-11-05 09:29:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/404870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RembrandtsWife/pseuds/Adarog
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Natasha meets Bruce for Indian food and an awkward conversation.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A bit about rage

**Author's Note:**

> This little fic wouldn't exist without Daniel Snyder's comments on Black Widow in _The Atlantic_ : ["Scarlett Johansson has the most human moment in 'The Avengers'"](http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/05/scarlett-johansson-has-the-most-human-moment-in-the-avengers/256822/). Nor would it exist without the overall awesomeness of the movie.

"Not shawarma this time, okay?"

He had such a sweet smile, Bruce Banner, that you could actually forget for a moment that he was... not always sweet. Even if you'd seen him in action, seen those massive fists hurtling toward you.

They met at a very good Indian restaurant in Manhattan. "Funny thing about Manhattan," Banner said as he tucked into his rice and beans and chicken tikka masala, "sometimes you can get better ethnic food here than where the food comes from." He grinned, a little drip of the orangey sauce at the corner of his mouth. He ate like he was starving. Maybe he was; she wondered if maybe the monster did something to his metabolism. Or maybe he just liked Indian food that much.

Natasha ordered malai kofta and ate way too much chapati sopping up the sauce. Extra time in the gym for that and for the cups of sweet, sweet milky chai with a hint of pepper in the bottom. She lounged in the booth and let Banner be silent over his third cup. Much of the time her job just consisted of getting men to talk until they started talking about the important stuff (and then kicking them out of the way when she had heard it all and needed to leave). It was refreshing just to sit and let a man be silent, catch a whiff of his cologne and see an ink-stain on his left hand and be unable to tell, at all, what he was thinking or feeling.

"I wanted to say I'm sorry."

She raised her eyes from the guttering flame of the candle. Its pooled wax was almost the same color as the tikka masala sauce. "For what, Bruce?"

He took a deep breath. "The other guy. When he broke loose. When he chased you."

The fear rolled over her so cold and fast that her nipples hardened. She kept her eyes down, on Banner's broad wrist and his scuffed leather watchband. The last thing she wanted him to think was that she was turned on by that memory. The second to last thing she wanted him to think was that she was still scared of him. Which she was.

"I'm sorry, Natasha." Another man might have put a hand over hers. He didn't. "He could have killed you. He would have. The other guy--I--"

She put her hand over his. "Bruce. It's okay." She thought about saying, "It wasn't you," but really, it was. Thought about saying, "It doesn't matter," but it did. "Without the Hulk, we wouldn't have held off the invasion. Even more people would have gotten hurt. We might not have caught Loki."

Bruce turned his hand so that it lay palm-up beneath hers. Didn't close his fingers. She smelled his cologne.

Did he ever date? hook up? did he even like women, or was he into men? Did it matter? Loki hadn't scared her because she'd known, they'd guessed, just how he'd react to her act (which had just enough sincerity to really, really work). Hulk had scared her because even a gay man will react to good boobs and the right kind of wiggle, will make certain assumptions about a woman that she knew how to exploit. Hulk wouldn't. Couldn't. There was only rage.

She knew a bit about rage.

She squeezed Banner's hand and sat up straight. "Whaddaya say I pay for this one, Bruce? No hard feelings."


End file.
